Finally: California's Alternative To Oil -- Transportation Fuel From Waste

A reader sent me this story several days ago; I finally got around to it.

From the press release:

North America’s largest provider of natural gas for transportation, announced today that it will be the first company to commercially distribute a renewable natural gas vehicle fuel, called Redeem, made from waste streams such as landfills, large dairies and sewage plants directly to fleets around the country and at the 35 public Clean Energy stations throughout California. Thousands of cars, taxis, shuttles and industrial fleets in California are now using Clean Energy’s Redeem, which is up to 90% cleaner than diesel and 100% renewable.

“It’s a landmark day for Clean Energy as the first company to make this revolutionary and renewable transportation fuel made from waste available to our customers,” said Andrew J. Littlefair, president and CEO of Clean Energy. “Our goal is to produce and distribute 15 million gallons of Redeem in our first year which can make significant progress towards achieving California’s climate change goals and show that this is a viable, cleaner and abundant alternative fuel source for our future.” 

Pretty impressive: 15 million gallons of biomethane.

California uses about 15 billion gallons of gasoline every year. 15 million gallons represent 0.1% of 15 billion gallons. Of course there's some conversion factor for gasoline/methane but others can do the math. I'm moving on.